Rolling Hills Middle School

Principal's Message, September 20

Principal’s Message

Next week, CUSD opens the middle school iReady assessment window.  This is a change from year’s past, when formal assessment began the week after students returned from summer.  Fruitful dialogue between teachers, site administration, and district administration led us to re-evaluate the timing of quantity of assessment of our middle school students.

In addition to the ongoing informal and formal assessment conducted by teachers as a result of working in Professional Learning Communities and student self-assessment of their own progress, iReady is another measure of student achievement.  Data will provide insight into student strengths and growth points, allowing students to know more about themselves and teachers to better individualize instruction.

iReady is an adaptive assessment that scales questions up and down to triangulate a student’s overall reading and math scores.  Reading is broken down into six components:

  • phonemic awareness,
  • phonics,
  • high frequency words,
  • vocabulary,
  • comprehension literature, and
  • comprehension informational.

Math is broken down into four components:

  • numbers and operations,
  • algebra and algebraic thinking,
  • measurement and data, and
  • geometry.

Whereas in year’s past, testing of this nature was conducted in only ELA and math classrooms, we were concerned about lost instruction in those two curricular areas.  Often times, students lost two to three periods of instruction as they completed these assessments.  This year, we have created a schoolwide testing block.  Periods 1-6 will be decreased by approximately 10 minutes, and all students will test simultaneously in their classrooms.  No single class will lose full periods of instruction; all teachers will share the responsibility of assessment, and those on prep will be able to pull small groups and support students with individual needs.

A special testing schedule follows.


Period 1

8:35 – 9:19 (44)

Passing Period

9:19 – 9:23 (4)

Period 2

9:23 – 10:05 (42)

Break

10:05 – 10:15 (10)

Passing Period

10:15 – 10:19 (4)

Testing Block

10:19 – 11:29 (70)

Passing Period

11:29 – 11:34 (5)

Period 3 (Early Lunch)

11:34 – 12:14 (40)

Period 3 (Late Lunch)

11:34 – 12:20 (46)

Lunch

12:20 – 12:50 (30)

Passing Period

12:50 – 12:54 (4)

Period 4

12:54 – 1:36 (42)

Passing Period

1:36 – 1:40 (4)

Period 5

1:40 – 2:22 (42)

Passing Period

2:22 – 2:26 (4)

Period 6

2:26 –  3:08 (42)

It is important to remember that iReady is a form of assessment, not the form of assessment.  Presentations, projects, labs, expressive writing, and the like are additional ways students demonstrate their learning and growth.

We are eager to see the data the iReady provides in the coming weeks so that we may continue to create goals for individual and schoolwide student learning.